How many cyclists are using the Bloor bike lanes?

The Bloor bike lane pilot project was installed last summer to some fanfare. This fall, City Council will consider whether or not to make them permanent. It has been stated from the beginning by the Mayor that the decision on whether to keep them will be data driven, and indeed there has been an unprecedented amount of study done on the bike lanes, including traffic counts, and various measures of economic impact. The first hurdle for the bike lanes is the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) meeting on October 18, and as that date approaches, both advocates and opponents of the bike lane are gearing up.

Yesterday’s CBC news had an article that mentioned some of the lobbying for and against. One of the issues that is always brought up is the question of how many cyclists are using the bike lane. Councillor Mammolitti was quoted as saying he wants a list of names of those riding in the lanes.

“I think that it’s the same people that just keep going in a circle just to be counted,” he said at the Sept. 19 public works meeting.

In addition, Denzil Minnan-Wong tweeted the following:

in response to an article in the Toronto Star that said that the Bloor bike lanes are increasing the number of cyclists. Unfortunately, both Minnan-Wong and Mammolitti are on PWIC. (Correction: D M-W is no longer on PWIC, but one can anticipate that Stephen Holiday will vote the same way that D M-W would.)

The city has cited a number of 4500 cyclists a day using the bike lanes, whereas various counts done by citizen groups such as Bells on Bloor and Cycle Toronto have come up with higher numbers.

Over the last week, 20 Bells on Bloor volunteers analyzed a video record of cyclists on Bloor at about Brunswick Ave, and for the first time, a full 24 hour count was done over five consecutive weekdays.

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5 Responses

Minnan-Wong isn’t on PWIC. The current members are: Christin Carmichael Greb, Chin Lee, Giorgio Mammoliti, Anthony Perruzza, Jaye Robinson, Stephen Holyday. However, it’ll still be hard to get this approved with the currently heavily suburban (with a tinge of crazy) membership.

Former PWIC chair during the Ford era, Denzil Minnan-Wong is no longer a member of said committee. However, since his promotion to the position of Deputy Mayor by John Tory, he has used neophyte second-generation councillor, Stephen Holyday, as his personal hand puppet.

Deputy Denzil should also be remembered for corrupting debate procedure at his own committee in June 23, 2011, during the run-up to the still controversial removal of bike lanes on Birchmount, Pharmacy and of Jarvis Street, knowingly making the streets of Toronto less safe for vulnerable road users and motorists alike, to serve a partisan political agenda.

Hah! The same thing was said in Vancouver when the Hornby protected bike lane went in. That it was a handful of cyclists jumping up and down on the counter hose.
The implication was that there was a small group of hobbyists were forcing their agenda on “normal” people.

It’s sad to see councillors saying things that are just speculation.
It’s important to be evidence based otherwise all sorts of nonsense get’s picked up and spread.
It’s hard enough in this car-centric world to get around by bike, we don’t need people saying we don’t exist.

HI Clark, Vancouver is light years ahead of TO. One issue for us is that even if Bloor is not the ideal site for a bike lane, it has become such a lightning rod that if it fails, then it will be hard to propose bike lanes on any major arterial for years to come.